Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur pointed to the play of the offensive line as the No. 1 reason why his offense played so poorly during Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the New York Jets
“It really doesn’t matter what we do schematically, if we don’t block better, it’s hard to do anything. I think that was the No. 1 issue yesterday,” LaFleur said.
The Packers averaged 3.0 yards per rush overall, struggled to run the ball on first down and poorly protected quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the passing game. The result? Green Bay scored three points on eight possessions in the first half and only 10 total points.
LaFleur said that, in addition to four sacks, the Jets hit Rodgers eight times. Looping stunts and slanting defensive linemen opened up massive holes in the line and allowed unblocked players free access to Rodgers and the running backs.
LaFleur said the Packers to take a long look at the play of the offensive line – and what needs to change, including personnel – after what can be described as the worst performance of the LaFleur era.
“We definitely have to look at what we’re doing in that regard, because it hasn’t been up to the level that we’ve been accustomed to in my tenure here. We haven’t performed that poorly in a game up to this point,” LaFleur said.
LaFleur pointed to mental errors up front, including one situation where Royce Newman didn’t make the right decision on an adjusted protection and created a negative play.
“Way too many negative plays,” LaFleur said.
Andy Herman of Packer Report put together two-minute blooper reel of all the times the offensive line had issues against the Jets:
As awful of an OL performance as you'll ever see. A lot of blame to go around, but nobody is winning anything with that performance on OL. Beyond brutal. pic.twitter.com/HYUIYINbhO
— Andy Herman (@AndyHermanNFL) October 17, 2022
No rest for the weary. This week, the Packers go on the road to play the Washington Commanders, who have first-round picks Montez Sweat, Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne highlighting their defensive front.
